IOM warns against humanitarian disaster

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Tuesday that the humanitarian disaster in Mosul after its liberation from Daesh terrorist group may go beyond estimated expectations.
IOM Spokesman Joel Millman said in a press conference that the gap between the eastern area of Mosul and the western one underlines blatant differences regarding amount of damages, adding that all indications show East Mosul to be recovering at a rapid pace, with much of its life returning to normal and a significant portion of services restored while West Mosul’s rise from the ashes is expected to take much longer.
The report revealed that the battle of Liberating Mosul city from Daesh came at a very high cost as entire neighborhoods of a city tracing its history back to 401 BC now lie in ruin. 
As of the 54 residential districts in West Mosul, 15 of them have been flattened with nearly 32.000 houses destroyed while further 23 districts have been moderately damaged with nearly half their buildings destroyed.

In 16 neighborhoods, damages considered lightly damaged with 16,000 homes destroyed, the report added.
The report stated that many schools and utility grids were in total ruins as roads and highways have been strongly shelled.
Mosul’s airport as well as the city’s historic railway and at least one university have been wrecked, the report further added
Officials estimate that nearly 80 percent of Mosul’s Medical City is now a burnt shell. The Medical City was the largest health facility in the Ninewa governorate housing several hospitals, a nearby medical school, laboratories and other medical facilities where explosive devices still litter its floors.
The IOM said that the UN Humanitarian Response Plan for Iraq, issued in February, warned that the operation in Mosul has the potential to be the single largest humanitarian operation in the world in 2017 requesting USD 985 million for the year, including estimated costs of supporting civilians impacted by fighting in Mosul. 
By early July, less than half of that amount USD 440 million had been received.
IOM continues to provide humanitarian assistance to the tens of thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in its constructed emergency sites at Qayara Air Strip and Haji Ali as well as to families that remain in host communities outside camps, report affirmed.
However, with only 33 percent of IOM’s USD 28.83 million appeal for the Mosul Crisis received and 34 percent of USD 47.46 million appeal for other areas of Iraq the funding gap may significantly impact future humanitarian operations.
Tens of thousands of families have been left without homes since the beginning of the Mosul operations in October 2016 report said.
The cumulative number of IDPs whose locations of displacement and/or return have been identified by IOM’s Emergency Tracking for Mosul Operations reached 178,695 families, report added.
141,042 families are still displaced while 225,918 IDPs have now returned with an estimated 80 percent going back to their districts of origin in East Mosul, report stated.
Of all the IDPs currently displaced by the Mosul operations, over 360,100 live in camps and emergency sites around Mosul while IOM’s emergency sites host nearly 22 percent of these individuals, the report further stated.

Source: Mena